Isn’t December letting us know that it’s here! My goodness, howling winds, sea foam, very high seas and plenty of lashing rain. That tells us it’s Winter although I’m still somewhere in September in my mind, oh dear I must be getting old! Thinking of December, it made me think about when I was young and an old tradition that seems to have vanished. Can you guess what I’m going to say? It’s carol singing. I don’t know if anyone has had carol singers at their door in recent years, but we haven’t. Maybe it’s too cold and windy where we live.
Carol Singing on Cold Winter Nights
I wonder how many of you people out there went out on cold freezing nights to try and make yourself a penny or two? Back in the day you did it to buy something you really wanted. I know that I did.
I used to have a glass lantern with a candle in it and believe me you needed some light. I’m going to show my age again now but I’m talking about when we had gas lights on our street. They only lit up the small area round the flame. We lived on a road that was a cul de sac, with one light at the bottom of each of the three avenues leading off from the road, which were also cul de sacs. As a result, it was completely black in the avenues.
I used to go up them having a fit. Sometimes with a friend, sometimes alone, and hoping that nobody was going to jump out from behind the privet hedges that all the front gardens had in those days. Just imagine today’s children going out and doing what we did! Their parents would have a dickey fit, saying they weren’t going anyway. How things change.
Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly
Then I’d stand at the front door, singing my heart out in my best voice. First a lovely carol (I could sing in those days) followed by ‘we wish you a merry Christmas’ etc. Then I knocked on the door and hoped and prayed someone would take pity on me and give me a penny or two. That’s the old penny, not the new ones! I quickly learnt that if you sang a few verses properly and didn’t rush through it, you were more likely to get the door opened!
Sometimes, of course, they didn’t come to the door at all, so off I went to the next house. Looking back, the whole cul de sac must have heard me singing at each house, so maybe the ones that did pay up were hoping to shut me up and get rid of me. Well you never know do you! I can’t tell you how happy it made me, going out night after night and earning a few pennies. I usually spent it on buying my mum a Christmas present.
Where are you…
When I look back, my mum never seemed to bother where I was or where I was going. Of course all the unpleasant things that happen today were going on back then, although not nearly as often, believe me. And of course there was no social media to spread the word like wildfire. On the whole, people were better behaved, not violent, and more considerate of others. To the point that where we lived you could go out and not even lock your door. It gives you an idea of the crime rate back then, not quite what it is today to say the least!
Back to my carol singing, As I grew older, got my own home and had children coming to my door to sing, it made me realise what it was like when I went doing my renditions. If someone sang nicely, didn’t rush through everything, I would pay them. But when it came to ‘big lads’ with very deep voices, hurtling as fast as they could manage with the least amount of singing, my door stayed firmly closed. Then it seemed to gradually fizzle away and the carol singers stopped coming.
Do you get Carol Singers?
It made me wonder if anyone has heard of carol singing today, or has it gone the way of a lot of old traditions and just doesn’t happen any more? Maybe you can tell me if you hear carol singers where you live.
I will never forget how happy I was as a child ‘earning’ a few pennies that were my own. We didn’t get much money in those days, ahhhhhh. It was much like bonfire night when we had a guy and sat at the end of our road asking for pennies. Earning a bit of money that was my very own meant the world to me. With pennies I could buy some coloured pencils and paper and I can still remember what it felt like to this day. It made me appreciate earning money I can tell you!!
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